AMECEA PLENARY: I am Grateful for the Award, Says Fr. Healey AMECEA Life Long Achiever
Rev. Fr. Joseph Healey, MM.
Mwenya Mukuka
The 2022 AMECEA Lifetime Achiever Award recipient Father Joseph Healey, MM, has expressed gratitude for the award and pledges to continue being one of AMECEA’s roving ambassadors.
This is contained in a letter he wrote to the AMECEA bishops.
“Many, many thanks for the Lifetime Achiever Award that was announced during 20th AMECEA Plenary being held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 9th to 18th July, 2022. I am deeply grateful,” he said.
Father Healey has since suggested that the award also be dedicated to AMECEA first generation Bishop Founders for their vision and planning.
He recalled how AMECEA Bishops recognized the importance of Social Communications, making him the second full time priest staff member in the AMECEA Office in Nairobi after the Secretary General Father Killian Flynn, OFM Cap.
“My ministry was to coordinate Social Communications activities between the then five member countries in the areas of training, research, production and collaboration with similar organizations in electronic and traditional media. The first priority was to train local Africans. At the time Bishop Jean Jobidon, MAfr represented Malawi on the AMECEA Board and became the Chairperson of the newly formed Social Communications Department of AMECEA. He was also a full member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in the Vatican,” he recalled.
Father Healey has also recalled the two AMECEA Plenaries of 1973 and 1976 stating that “systematic formation of Small Christian Communities (SCCs) should be the key pastoral priority in the years to come in Eastern Africa.
“This is the single most important statement made about SCCs and laid the foundation for the development of the SCCs Model of Church. Clearly the AMECEA countries were ahead of their time. In fact the very beginning of SCCs in the whole of English-speaking Africa can be traced back to the joint pastoral and missionary efforts of the American Maryknoll missionaries in three rural parishes of Nyarombo, Ingri and Kowak Parishes,” he said.
“In both these priorities of social communications and SCCs we continue to build on the shoulders of these first AMECEA Bishops. This includes moving into the digital world,” he added.
Ends///
